


Cheer for me

by pastelserpent



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crushes, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Library, Hufflepuff, Mutual Pining, Quidditch, Romance, Secret Crush, prefects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24769015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelserpent/pseuds/pastelserpent
Summary: The Hufflepuff common room had many advantages, the main one being that it was always warm, and this was what had allowed for me and Kim to curl on one of the sofas, each with a book in hand, as we tested each other on the various potions that would be in the upcoming 5th year potions test. “come on y/n, you know this one, Slughorn is making us do it next lesson,” I shot her a dark look, as she fiddled with a strand of her grey hair, “you know I don’t pay a word of attention to anything that man says,” I mumbled flicking through the textbook once more. “well you should,” she teased, “he’s very intelligent, when he’s trying,” I scoffed quietly, “he has a framed picture of every slug club he ever hosted, including one with you know who, he is odious.” Grumbling several curse words, I stretched, and reached for a different textbook, “have you got rounds tonight?” she asked, as I tied my hair into a bun, spearing it in place with a disused quill.* 1st person perspective** hope you like it :)
Relationships: Charlie Weasley/Reader
Kudos: 46





	Cheer for me

The Hufflepuff common room had many advantages, the main one being that it was always warm, and this was what had allowed for me and Kim to curl on one of the sofas, each with a book in hand, as we tested each other on the various potions that would be in the upcoming 5th year potions test. “come on y/n, you know this one, Slughorn is making us do it next lesson,” I shot her a dark look, as she fiddled with a strand of her grey hair, 

“you know I don’t pay a word of attention to anything that man says,” I mumbled flicking through the textbook once more. “well you should,” she teased, “he’s very intelligent, when he’s trying,” I scoffed quietly, “he has a framed picture of every slug club he ever hosted, including one with you know who, he is odious.” Grumbling several curse words, I stretched, and reached for a different textbook, “have you got rounds tonight?” she asked, as I tied my hair into a bun, spearing it in place with a disused quill.

I nodded with a sigh, “I'm meant to be doing it with one of the Gryffindor prefects, I don’t even know which one, but Merlin knows I’d rather a Slytherin any day,” she laughed quietly, “you never know, you might get Weasley,” I groaned at the thought, sinking further into the sofa, “don’t even, you know I can’t be anywhere near him without turning pink,” she laughed again, significantly louder, drawing yet more attention to us, “pity your brother is such good friends with Bill,” I groaned again, 

“don’t go there, every damn time, Eli drags me to the burrow every holiday, I'm so glad he’s graduating this year,” sighing I shut the book, and reached for my wand, casting a quick charm on my hair, drying the last wet ends. Some genius had cast a spell to drench all Gryffindor students, but hadn’t realised that Gryffindors are always running late, and as such half of our class had got drenched in one way or another, while the majority of the Gryffindor students who it was aimed at – had walked away dry as a bone. Lucky sods. Including a certain Weasley.

“I'm not,” she stated with a sigh, it was no secret that she had had more than one uncomfortable crush on my brother, and she would be more devastated to seem him graduate than I would be – for one it meant I might not be dragged to the burrow nearly as frequently, or asked to help mentor the Weasley twins, oh or cheer for Charlie at quidditch matches – despite being in a different house. “of course you aren’t, but even so,” she sighed dramatically, catching with ease the cushion I had thrown at her, “you should know better than to try and test a quidditch player,” she teased, my brother in his infinite wisdom, was also a quidditch player, and the current captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team – a position which was speculated to go to Charlie once he had graduated. 

“you should know better than to test me,” I teased back, catching the cushion and placing it behind my back. “what time are rounds anyway?” I shrugged, “I'm meant to meet them outside the great hall ten minutes before curfew, but you know what Gryffindor’s are like, being on time is not their strong point,” she sighed leaning back in the sofa, her feet touching mine, “why do you do all that extra stuff anyway?” I shrugged, “I wish I had an answer for you, but truthfully I don’t,” she sighed dramatically, before her face took on a glare as she looked up at one of the approaching Hufflepuff boys.

“what do you want, Clinton?” she asked glowering, Clinton had made it obvious that he had a crush on her, and being a couple of years older – and in the same year as my brother – he had made it his personal mission to get her to go out with him to Hogsmeade at least once before the year ended. “come to Hogsmeade with me,” I rolled my eyes, snapping my book shut, catching his attention, “take a hint, if she wanted to go with you, she’d have done it by now,” he turned to face me, ready to hurl some insult, but instead held his tongue. “chill y/n, I was just asking,” I folded my arms over my chest, “you’ve been ‘just asking’ for the last two terms. Take the hint,” 

he scoffed quietly, but turned, and walked away, “asshole,” Kim muttered, glaring at his disappearing figure, “I think you were sorted into the wrong house,” she added, “standing up for people is a Gryffindor thing,” I scoffed quietly, putting my books in a pile on the floor next to us, instead tucking my knees up to my chest, “loyalty is a Hufflepuff thing,” she shot me a smile, mirroring my action, as we both buried our heads into the top cushion on the sofa.

“what are you going to do if it is Charlie tonight?” I groaned at the thought, “I'm going to be professional, try not to cry, and just get through it, and then I’ll come back here the colour of a peach and whimper into your shoulder,” she laughed for a moment until she saw the look in my eye, and realised I had been deadly serious. “you cannot run from the boy, we are in the same year as him! why don’t you just tell him that you like him?” my eyebrow rose silently, “oh yes of course, I'm going to tell him, the boy I have to spend half my weekends with, and nearly every single holiday, who also happens to be in our year, who isn’t graduating until we graduate? Whose siblings would never let me forget it? Great idea!” 

she rolled her eyes at my sarcasm, tossing a cushion in my direction, “you can’t just be a sitting duck, otherwise someone else will come and take him,” I shrugged grouchily, “let someone else, I don’t have the patience to fiddle around with it anymore.” She sighed again, “you don’t mean that, why won’t you just ask him to go to Hogsmeade with you? Screw waiting around for him, girls can ask guys too, just ask him before some third year tries to steal him.”

I laughed quietly, pulling my hair out of the bun that I had tied it up into for studying, slowly undoing the braids, I thought over what she had said, “I agree that girls can ask guys, but I have a damn lot to lose if he doesn’t feel the same way,” she sighed quietly, watching as I carefully untangled the last end of the braid which had kept my fringe out of my face. “I bet he does, and so what if he doesn’t? Eli will be there to support you,” I shrugged, “come on y/n! I’ll support you too, what’s the worst that could happen?” I sighed, staring up at the ceiling, “too many things,” the clock chimed – a special Hogwarts feature, notifying students that there were ten minutes before curfew. 

“and that’s my queue,” I grumbled, extracting myself from the comfortable sofa, “see you when I get back,” I picked up my books, and hurriedly walked up to the dorm room. Dumping my books next to my bed, I grabbed my scarf – the corridors were always freezing – and made my way back through the common room, giving Kim one final wave before slipping out through the portrait hole. Running a hand through my hair, I shook the waves out, ignoring the various comments of the portraits as I walked past them – who seemed to enjoy antagonising students. 

The great hall already had someone waiting outside of it by the time I approached, slowing my pace for a moment, I studied the boy in the red robes and knew enough the moment I caught sight of red hair. “hey!” Charlie called out to me, earning him strange looks from the other students, I internally winced, of course it would be him, “hi Charlie,” I mumbled, pulling my scarf slightly tighter, to cover the pink blush I could feel rising, despite the fact the hall was far from cold. “are you not feeling well?” he asked immediately spying my action, “I'm ok, just a little cold,” I lied quickly, offering what I hoped, was a reassuring smile, 

“if you’re sure,” he offered a smile of his own in return – a smile that I knew affected nearly every fifth year girl – myself included. “shall we just get this over with? I'm sure you don’t want to be walking round the deserted corridors any more than I do,” I shook my head, watching as he casually buried his hands in his pockets, offering me another disarming smile. By the time we were halfway around the deserted corridors, I was seriously weighing up feigning illness… being around Charlie in such a capacity was not a good idea for my nerves. “are you sure you are ok y/n? you don’t look too well,” maybe I wouldn’t have to fake it after all.

“honestly I'm fine, one of my friends was joking about a poltergeist the other night, I'm just a bit on edge,” the first part may have been a lie, but the second part certainly wasn’t. Lisanna – one of our dormmates – had found an old copy of Hogwarts a history, which had claimed there was a poltergeist down one of the abandoned corridors. “don’t tell me you believe her?” he asked, “the fat friar is a ghost, the bloody baron is a ghost, nearly headless Nick is a ghost,” I reminded him, subtly moving closer to him, as we approached the corridor that the poltergeist was speculated to live down. “you really are scared, aren’t you?” 

there was a light teasing edge to his voice, but I knew he was being serious, I nodded quickly, burying my nose into my scarf, to hide the blush that had risen onto my cheeks. “I bet there is nothing,” he assured me, walking directly next to me just as casually as when we had first set off, “I don’t want to take bets,” I mumbled quietly, he chuckled quietly, “you can stay behind me if it’ll make you feel better,” I didn’t need telling twice, and within an instant was directly behind him. he chuckled again, walking a pace ahead of me, as we round the corner to complete silence.

“told you,” he stated, my eyes flicked carefully across the corridor, looking for any sign of disturbance, “I don’t want to stick around to find out,” I muttered, hurriedly walking to fall in step behind him. We had just walked past the final classroom down the corridor when a loud bang reverberated around the walls, “ok, so that’s not good,” Charlie mumbled reaching for his wand, realising I couldn’t leave him on his own, I reached for my wand, and held it out in front of me. 

The final classroom was a disused classroom for divination – and in my opinion, looked similar to the insides of Madam Puddifoot’s café – holding my wand in front of me, I slowly pushed open the door. “for Merlin’s sake,” I muttered under my breath, watching unimpressed as two sixth years broke away from each other – one of which I recognised as formerly trying to hit on Charlie, clearly she hadn’t stayed very heartbroken for very long – “I'm going,” I declared to Charlie, neither student was in my house, rendering me practically useless – even if they were both a year older than us. 

“I have had more than enough of things that go bump in the night,” Charlie tutted from beside me at the couple, deducting points from both of them, watching the two of them hurry out of the room, rearranging their uniform as they went, I folded my arms over my chest. “have you had enough of things that go bump in the night if they involve kissing?” Charlie teased from beside me, “quite enough,” I stated flatly, putting my wand back into my pocket, 

“now I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to sit around here anymore, I would quite like to go back to my common room, and I'm sure there are plenty of people waiting for your return,” I held back my true comment of ‘a bunch of floozies waiting to entertain you,’ and instead shot him a look, he nodded, it was enough of an answer, and with that, I hurried back out of the room, and was halfway down the corridor leading back to the great hall before he caught up with me.

“are you coming to the match tomorrow?” I turned my head slightly to look up at him, “am I heck,” I grumbled, pulling my scarf up higher, “why not?” he pressed, “because it’s not a Hufflepuff match, and I'm not getting cold for no good reason,” we continued walking while he considered my answer, “it wouldn’t be no good reason,” my eyebrow rose silently as we walked back into the used corridors of Hogwarts, “I’d be playing,” I rolled my eyes at the wink he shot me, nudging him, “that makes it all better,” I grumbled sarcastically, he nudged me teasingly, a small blush seeping up onto my cheeks. 

“come on y/n, come cheer for me,” I rolled my eyes again as we walked past the great hall, and then in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room, “you say this every time,” I reminded him tiredly, “and every time you come to the match,” I sighed, knowing he was right. “I really don’t want to Charlie,” usually I would’ve gone to the match anyway, but for once I had a genuine excuse – 

I couldn’t fail the upcoming potions exam, if I failed it, I wouldn’t be in a good position to get into the top set next year for the advanced potions class. “what have you got to do instead?” he continued until we were outside the kitchens, next to the Hufflepuff common room, “I have revision, for the potions exam,” I replied, he rolled his eyes, stubbornly folding his arms over his chest, “we both know you are going to ace that, honestly you should’ve been a Ravenclaw, come on y/n, please come and cheer for me.”

I shook my head simply, “I’ll tell Eli,” he threatened – both of us knowing damn well he would – I shrugged again, “tell him, he knows that all it takes is one letter to mum and he’ll get a howler about disturbing my studies,” his expression remained fixed, his stubbornness clearly not going away. Damn Gryffindors and their stubbornness. “come on y/n, do it for me,” I shook my head once more, “you know I’d do anything for you, but I really can’t afford not to get full marks on this test, maybe another time,” I patted his arm before crouching down to the portrait, and running my hand across the picture to the pear, giving it a light tickle. 

It was an action that no longer surprised Charlie, having walked me back from rounds on more than one occasion, “goodnight Charlie,” slipping through the portrait hole, I didn’t look back, and instead walked up to the dorm, giving the clock in the common room a brief look – midnight, seven hours of sleep if I hurried. Hurrying into the dorm, and showering quickly, I launched myself under the covers, pulling them up as high as possible, hoping to fall asleep quickly – but doubting the likelihood of it happening.

…….

There is something insanely annoying about the Hogwarts wakeup call, and by the Hogwarts wakeup call, I mean Kim’s wakeup call for me. “come on sleepyhead, rise and shine!” groaning groggily, I shot the artificial sunlight that shone into the dorm a dark look, “get stuffed,” as she was used to my sarcastic early-morning responses, she didn’t bat and eyelid at pulling my warm covers off me. “that was uncalled for,” I stated, running a hand through my messy hair, “you didn’t tell me about your rounds,” she replied, arms folded over her oversized t-shirt, “you were asleep when I got in,” I reminded her, shuffling up the bed to be sat against the pillows. 

She immediately sat down opposite me on the bed, ignoring the groans and grumbles of our dormmates at the level of noise from her jumping onto the bed, and the ‘sunshine’ shining into the room. “well what happened?” groaning, I glared up at the canopy above the bed, “absolutely nothing of any interest to anyone.” I stated flatly, reaching for my a hair bobble, beginning to braid my hair, “come on y/n, something must have happened,” she wailed desperately, I shot her a look as I split my hair down the middle, “nothing happened, we came across some stupid sixth years, he deducted points, we came back here,” I missed out half the interaction purposely. 

“there is no way in the name of Merlin, that that is all that happened,” she stated, rolling her eyes at my obvious evasion of her questions, “oh he invited me to cheer for him at the match again,” I added, “I refused,” it was in that moment that I was thankful our dormmates had already woken up, because if they hadn’t been awake before, they certainly would’ve been afterwards. I shot them an apologetic look – which she didn’t bother to – and instead turned back to her, glancing at her flatly, “you did what!?! you need to go and cheer for him! he asked you to!” I rolled my eyes, throwing a lazy gentle slap in her direction, 

“no I don’t, he asks me every time, Kim, I can go one time without going, and besides, I need to revise, otherwise NEWTs are never going to happen.” She rolled her eyes at me again, “yeah he asks you every time because he wants you there, what would your brother say?” I snorted quietly, “he’ll let me off when he realises it’s in the interest of my grades,” she groaned, “why has Eli got to be such a considerate brother?” flipping her off, I got off the bed, and reached for the stack of fresh clothes that I always laid out before rounds. 

“because he’s my brother,” I replied shutting the bathroom door behind me, the warm water of the showers got rid of the stresses from the night before but didn’t begin to ease my concerns for the oncoming troubles – mainly that Charlie and Kim could work together to persuade me to go to the match. Sighing, I scrambled out of the shower, and began dressing in a comfy sweatshirt with jeans, finally tying my hair into a ponytail, with the braids tied back too, I glanced in the mirror, sighing again, time to start the day. Re-entering the dorm room, I watched as Kim shot me one final look before entering the bathroom, 

Eli was definitely aware of her crush – he’d even asked me about it – and while I had tried to keep a lid on her feelings, Bill and Charlie had made no such effort, and had rather openly discussed her very obvious feelings. It was definitely one of the downsides of growing up around boys – while I tried to remain loyal to my friend, they would inevitably ask questions, which the answers they were always oblivious to – and claim that as their friend or little ‘sister’ as Bill had affectionately nick-named me, I should tell them too. 

Which I had zero intention on doing.

By the time Kim, Lisanna – and the rest of our extended Hufflepuff friendship group were ready, the clock had already struck eight, meaning breakfast would’ve started, and the first years would most likely have claimed most of the food already. “hurry your asses along,” Kim hurried our group, including many of the Hufflepuff fifth year boys, down to the hall, I hid towards the back of group, aligning myself with Diego – a decent boy in our house, the best in our year at duelling, and also a member of the quidditch team – “I'm going to assume you aren’t going to the match,” he teased knowingly, 

“you’d be correct,” I mumbled as our group settled at the reasonably peaceful Hufflepuff table. While the rest of my friends set about piling up plates, I settled for a glass of pumpkin juice and a small bowl of fruit, knowing that a heavy breakfast would only make studying harder. “my favourite sister,” Eli’s voice rang out from behind me, and I didn’t need to turn around to know he would be flanked by two smirking Weasley brothers, “your only sister,” I grumbled putting down my glass, before slowly turning around to face him.

As predicted, the two Weasley brothers were stood behind my dear brother smirking, “what do you want Eli?” he smiled, his eyes flicking across to Kim, “may I borrow my sister for a moment?” she nodded, despite being around our house all the time, he rarely spoke to her, and usually sufficed with acknowledging her presence with a nod – hence her mouth had fallen open in shock at being spoken to in any wider capacity, “no you may not, say whatever you need to say now, and then go away, I have studying to get on with,” he sighed, “I offered you the private option,” he reminded me, 

“why won’t you come and watch our match? Dad said you had to support me at least one match,” I rolled my eyes, “I wasn’t asked to support you at your match,” I emphasised, “I was asked to support someone else,” I didn’t need to look at Kim to know she would be smiling sweetly. “yeah, and you should support…” rising to my feet, I shot a careful look at my friends, who were all listening in a lot closer than they had been, rising onto my tip toes, I clamped my hand over his mouth, “finish that sentence, and I will have a howler sent here so fast you won’t get time to blink,” I threatened, his eyes shone brightly, a smirk rising to his lips.

“now would you like to go and talk about it outside?” I shot the two brothers behind him a look, “what’s with those two?” the pair smirked at each other before turning to me, “we’re just here to make sure you agree to come to the match, otherwise between the pair of us, we can carry you to it,” my hand dropped from Eli’s mouth, and I groaned, glancing heavenwards, “damn you.” Eli smiled again, “so are you going to come?” I shook my head stubbornly, “I don’t have to be at every single match you know, I can support you even when I'm not there, and I can’t afford to fail this test. Besides, Diego offered to help me practice duelling for next year,” I shot Diego a grateful look, which he responded to with a gentle nod, 

“I could’ve helped you,” Charlie stated, the air immediately turning a degree cooler, “well it wasn’t like you offered,” I stated flatly, from my peripheral vision, I watched as both Bill and Eli winced. “now if we’re done here, I'm not coming to the match, and this quite obviously isn’t the Gryffindor table, so leave us in peace,” turning away from them, I retook my seat next to Diego, flipping my ponytail over my shoulder.

“they must really have got to you,” he commented, I shook my head, “I'm just reminding them that I'm my own person, I'm not just Eli’s little sister,” he offered me a small smile, before turning back to his conversation with Tonks, and breakfast continued. “are you sure that was wise?” Lisanna asked carefully, “probably not, but I'm not just Eli’s sister, and they need to remember that I have other things that matter to me.” it was true that being Eli’s little sister was a big part of my identity, it was how most people recognised me, but living in his shadow, grew annoying, 

it also didn’t help that my best friend often wasn’t impartial due to her ongoing infatuation (though she would’ve claimed she’d grown out of it months before) – which she was exhibiting symptoms of as she stared over to the Gryffindor table. “why not just go y/n, it’s one match,” I rolled my eyes silently – this was the same line she used on me every time I refused to go to a match, and usually it would work, but for once I was feeling stubborn, and just wanted to focus on my own work, and stay in my lane, instead of running around after everyone else.

“I don’t want, to I have other things to do, and I'm not interested in freezing my ass off for the privilege of watching my brother attempt to block a stupid ball,” I turned to Diego knowingly, “do you want to start now?” he nodded, immediately excusing the pair of us from the table, we fell into step beside each other as we walked out of the great hall. But before we left, I threw one more look over to the Gryffindor table, Charlie was seated with several of his friends from the quidditch team, alongside the sixth and seventh year players, all of their eyes were supposed to be focused on Eli, but Charlie’s clearly weren’t. 

He had instead been following our movements, my eyes met his, his eyes immediately turned a shade darker, the looking on his face becoming fixed in a scowl, “is he seriously pissy because I refused to go to a match?” I asked Diego, knowing he would be aware of what was going on. “no, there’s more to it than that,” he assured me, “but you aren’t going to tell me, right?” he shrugged, “I’ll tell you when we get to the library, I suspect you wanna be sitting down before I tell you.”

Our conversation continued the whole way back to the common room to pick up our books, and then in the general direction of the library, “Diego, you can tell me, I'm not easily surprised,” he shook his head, “I don’t want to carry you to the hospital wing if you pass out,” he nudged me teasingly as we walked into the library and selected a table in the corner furthest from the door. “so, tell me,” he chuckled quietly sliding into the seat opposite me, “you sure are impatient, you seriously don’t know?” I shook my head simply, 

“oh wow y/n, come on, if you can pick up on Kim’s crush on Eli surely you know how Charlie feels.” I sighed, crossing one leg over the other, beginning to fiddle with a small piece of hair, “why does everyone seem to think I know everything about the child? I only spend time with him when Eli drags me to the burrow,” Diego sighed, giving my arm an affectionate pat. “y/n, I'm serious here, are you genuinely clueless?” I nodded silently, “wow, I probably shouldn’t tell you then, I should let him,” I groaned quietly, “please just tell me, Diego, and then we can study, I just need to know what it is, that way I can go and slap some sense into him if necessary.” 

He sighed again, glancing around the practically empty room quickly, “fine, I’ll tell you, but only because you are one of my best friends, and you didn’t hear this from me,” I nodded in immediate agreement, carefully anticipating his answer, “he has a crush on you, y/n, the biggest crush ever. That’s why no boy has dared to come near you in the last six months, it circulated the quidditch teams after a match, when you came up and hugged me, I told him that we aren’t like that, but even so, he is so damn in love with you, it’s all in his eyes. Now you know, so let’s study,” any comment I could’ve made slipped off my lips, and instead I stared forward in a complete daze, 

“yeah study, let’s study,” I mumbled, reaching for my textbook and a fresh piece of parchment, “you ok? I probably shouldn’t have told you; you look like you are about to faint,” I shook my head, snapping out of the daze. “I'm fine, just surprised, come on let’s study, we need to do the practice questions, and then we have duel theory practice too,” he nodded slowly, turning back to the textbook that I had placed in between us. “don’t you want to go and…?” his sentence trailed off, but I knew what he was hinting at, “it can wait,” I mumbled, beginning to note down the first few answers, “you sure about that?” someone else asked, casting a shadow over my work.

My eyes slowly rose from the piece of parchment in front of me up to meet Charlie’s eyes, he was already dressed in full quidditch gear, and his usual smirk – that he claimed not to realise had girls throwing themselves at him – had been replaced by a curious, nervous expression. “can you give us five,” he stated dismissively to Diego, who glanced worriedly towards me, waiting for me to nod before he got up and walked off to a bookshelf to look at some book. 

“can I help you?” I mumbled quietly, watching as he slid into a seat opposite me, “I wanted to talk to you,” he replied, flipping the textbook shut in front of me. “you’re doing a good impression right now,” he rolled his eyes, before fixing them on me, “I'm serious y/n, I need to talk to you before the match starts, your brother only just let me slide out of training to find you,” I sighed, pushing the parchment back from me on the table, and stretching back in my chair, realising I wasn’t going to be getting much work done any time soon.

“fine Charlie, what did you want to talk about?” he sighed, like the stubborn Gryffindor he was, folding his arms in front of him, only to then relax them into his lap, and then place them on the table. “you’re fidgeting,” I murmured quietly, the statement stirred him enough to stop the action, and he instead settled for having them on the table in front of him, gently I raised my hands to be on the table, inching closer to his fingers, but pulling back a couple of centimetres away. “are you surprised?” he asked, meeting my eye properly for the first time since he had sat down, 

“yes,” I replied truthfully – even if I knew the reason for his awkwardness, he had always managed to just be himself, and put aside that part of him when I was around, he would be awkward, nervous, clumsy even, but never to the same level of anxiety. “why? I'm pretty sure Diego told you,” his tone spat out the name Diego like a bad word, “what’s your problem with him? we’re friends Charlie, just like you and I are friends, Bill and I are friends,” he rolled his eyes, “I'm pretty sure he told you,” I sighed. Defying my previous instinct, I reached across, placing my hand on top of his, “yes he did tell me, but I’d much rather hear it from you,” he glanced up to my eyes, and then immediately back down.

“what’s the point? You already know what I'm going to say,” I sighed, lifting my hand from his, to cup his face in my hand, pressing my thumb and finger into his cheeks lightly to squidge them, “I don’t care whether I've heard it a thousand times from a thousand people, I haven’t heard it from you, and I want to hear it from you, no one else.” 

He sighed, sliding his free hand from the table, and running it through his hair, tousling the ends, I ignored my natural instinct to chastise him for it, and instead sat waiting for him to talk – which he would, because he always did. “you know it’s the darndest thing, you say we’re friends, just like how you’re friends with Bill and Diego, but you look at me differently to how you look at them, I know you’d usually tease me about being oblivious, but I'm not oblivious to the looks you give me.” 

I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat, I had been banking on is oblivious nature carrying over into the way I looked at him, “I don’t see those other girls’ looks, the only look I see, are the ones you give me, and don’t even try and play dumb, I've seen them, you look at me the way every boy wants to be looked at.” I sighed quietly, noticing how his grip on my hand had tightened, “well now that we’ve established, I'm a bit of perv, was there anything?” I attempted to play it off as a joke, wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

“don’t try and joke y/n, I'm being serious, you look at me so differently, and I hadn’t figured it out till you pointed out how those other girls look at me, it makes perfect sense,” I sighed quietly wishing I could break his eye contact, “what does Charlie? That I’ve had a crush on you for the last six months and did nothing about it? Does it make sense? Because I can’t afford to lose you as a friend were something to go wrong,” my statement brought his eyes back to mine, and I pulled my hand away from his. “I can’t do this, even if you had a crush on me, this wouldn’t work out,” 

scrabbling together my books, I went to push back my chair, “stay,” his voice was harsher than it had been, but there was still that soft undertone that he always had when it came to talking to me. “why wouldn’t it work? My parents met in Hogwarts and they’re still going strong,” I sighed, turning back to face him, “your match will be starting soon,” he shrugged off his quidditch robe, “your changing the subject, and you only do that when things get too real for you,” he really did know me too well.

“it is too real for me,” I replied simply, brushing a strand of hair out of my face, “I don’t like thinking about the future, you know that, I don’t want to worry that I could lose one of my best friends because I dated him when it would’ve been safer to keep him as a friend.” He sighed, retaking my hand, “safety is great and all, but it does nothing for me, I’ll make a deal with you, we date for six months, if it doesn’t go well, we pretend it never happened and go back to being friends, if it works out then we continue.” I thought over it for a moment, “six months?” he nodded quickly, “six months Charlie,” 

his face broke into an immediate smile and before I had a chance to react, he was already around the table, his arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders, “I'm not being a quidditch girlfriend,” I informed him, “I don’t care,” he mumbled, his head buried in the crook of my neck, “you don’t need to be one,” I smiled, my arm raising to cradle his head. “but there is one thing…” I sighed dramatically, watching him unwind from my neck, “come and cheer me on,” my eyes rolled, “please,” my eyes widened as he got down on his knees in front of me, “get up,” I hissed, he smiled toothily, “please come and cheer me on, as my girlfriend, please come and cheer me on,” I groaned watching as he smiled, clearly not willing to move until I agreed. 

“at the end of the match I’ll be there,” I promised, reaching for one of my textbooks, and turning away – ignoring the fact he was still kneeled next to me – “looking like a love sick puppy there Charlie,” I stated reaching for the piece of parchment that I had started work on. “looking like one hell of a love sick puppy,” Bill stated walking towards us, “but he has a point, come and cheer, you can study later,” I sighed, glancing across to where Diego had appeared, “go, we can study later,” sighing again, I offered him a quick smile, before tidying up my various items, “come on then Charlie, I swear though, if you lose this match, I'm never coming to another match,” 

he laughed picking up my bag and slinging it leisurely on his shoulder as though it weighed nothing, despite being packed with textbooks. “don’t make me carry you too,” I groaned theatrically, getting to my feet, choosing to ignore the amused look stretched across Bill’s face, “don’t look so smug Bill,” I grumbled bitterly, he continued to smile knowingly, “I think I'm allowed to, my baby brother,” he ignored the grimace that covered Charlie’s face, “finally got with the girl he’s been pinning over for months.”

I shot Charlie a look out of the corner of my eye, watching as the grimace turned to an embarrassed smile, “are we going or what?” his smile widened, and he grabbed my hand, practically dragging me out of the library and down to the quidditch pitch with Bill and Diego trailing after us in conversation. “I’ll be looking for you,” he promised, stopping a little way from the quidditch field, passing my bag to Diego and ordering him to go and save the pair of us a seat, Bill seeing where this was going disappeared, telling Charlie to hurry up before Eli came after him. “just don’t get injured,” I muttered, brushing a stray piece of hair out of his eyes, 

“I won’t,” he stated cockily, ignoring my raised eyebrow, “you better not,” he smirked, leaning down to a press a kiss to my forehead. It wasn’t an unusual action for us, but it had significantly more meaning, dropping his hand, I pressed a kiss to his cheek, “see you afterwards,” before hurrying towards the spectator stands, ducking and diving around people until I found the seat Diego had saved us. “you better cheer extra loudly for him,” he stated, a small smile at the edge of his lips, “I might,” I mumbled, my cheeks tinting pink, while he laughed, “it always turns out exactly how it’s supposed to.”

The soppy end.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So this one took a little longer than expected, and I'm so sorry that posting slowed down, I want to give you all the best writing I can, and I really wasn't feeling this one for a long time, so it's only getting posted now. I realised that some people are subscribing to my stories - I want to explain that unless otherwise stated I only do one chapter, and leave the rest up to your imagination to fill in the blanks - I'm sorry if this isn't what you like, and I may consider doing more than one chapter in the future, but we'll see, as right now writing one chapter is just a lot better for me. But feel free to subscribe to me in general! While I'm here, I also wanted to mention that I'm considering taking requests - they'd need to be in a similar style to how I currently write, with one reader/one Hogwarts character (preferably male), a romance of some kind and a happy ending (I can't be doing with writing stuff that will make people cry - because I'll also be crying) but if you have an idea feel free to drop it in the comments along with feedback (I'm always open to feedback). If you don't want to leave a comment - and you know how to - feel free to leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Anyways, I hope you liked this, and I'll see you on the next piece *hopefully* soon!   
> Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)


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